CU-Boulder graduate journalism program keeps its accreditation

Paul Voakes, dean of the University of Colorado's School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Glenn J. Asakawa)

The University of Colorado's graduate-level newsgathering program in the soon-to-close School of Journalism and Mass Communication received provisional reaccreditation Friday, despite a recommendation against it.

The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication met in Portland, Ore., and overwhelmingly overturned an earlier committee's recommendation that the master's newsgathering program lose its accreditation.

The vote was 17-1 and is the final decision in a three-part process.

The newsgathering program will continue as an accredited program and will be eligible for full reaccreditation in two years, according to Paul Voakes, the CU journalism dean.

CU's undergraduate journalism program also received reaccreditation on a provisional basis, with a unanimous vote.

Voakes and Bill Kaempfer, a vice provost, answered questions for the accrediting committee at the meeting. They also provided updates about the future of journalism education at CU -- something that had been clouded by uncertainty the last time they met with accreditors because the regents had not yet voted to close the school and adopt a new approach called "Journalism Plus."

"We were able to bring an update on the whole discontinuance process," Voakes said. "That was reassuring to the council. Now we're on such firmer footing, and I think we were able to be persuasive that the University of Colorado is committed to sustaining and improving journalism education."

In August, CU initiated a "discontinuance process" for its journalism school and, earlier this month, the Board of Regents -- in a 5-4 vote -- took the unprecedented step to shut down the school.

CU officials have said they're improving journalism education and will instead offer the "Journalism Plus" program, which calls for the campus to drop journalism as a standalone bachelor's degree. Students will be able to pursue a double major in journalism and another subject, or they will be able to major in a subject with a certificate or minor in journalism.

This summer, CU's journalism faculty will be transferred to the Graduate School.

The accreditation process, which happens every six years, is separate from the discontinuance.

Weston Gentry, who is among the 60 students in the master's newsgathering program, said he was pleasantly surprised by the vote.

"It restores a vestige of credibility to a program that's been suffering a lot of bad news of late," Gentry said. "It's great news for us who had been trapped in limbo."

Tom Yulsman, co-director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at CU, said the vote is a great relief. The center, he said, needs a strong master's journalism program to carry out its work.

"That cloud has been lifted, so now we can really figure out what do we do moving forward in this new environment that the university has put us in," he said.

Co-director Len Ackland said the environmental journalism emphasis in the master's program attracts top-notch graduate students to the Boulder campus.

"The provisional reaccreditation decision gives the university a chance to prove that it values that vital aspect of journalism education by strengthening the graduate program so it can be fully accredited in two years," he said.

An on-site team recommended provisional re-accreditation for both the undergraduate and master's program, but it found problems with the "administration" category because of weak leadership and faculty disputes that prompted the university leadership to get involved and start the discontinuance process.

A second committee that met in late March supported the recommendation of provisional re-accreditation for the undergraduate program, but it recommended that the master's newsgathering program lose its accreditation because it didn't meet three of nine criteria. In addition to the "administration" category, the master's program was also found out of compliance in terms of "diversity" and "assessment."

The author of the on-site accrediting report said some of those problems are easily fixable, though, and CU successfully argued that it should receive provisional reaccreditation for the master's program as well. Voakes said the council seemed assured that CU will be able to provide an effective structure for journalism education within the next two years.

The council also seemed confident that the problems in the newsgathering master's program regarding diversity and assessment can be effectively addressed within the next two years, according to Voakes.

Voakes and CU Provost Russell Moore sent a letter to the accreditors earlier this month, addressing the diversity component. About 7 percent of the newsgathering program is made up of minority students, which is higher than the 1 percent implied in the site team's report, according to the letter.

And the site team found there was insufficient emphasis of diversity-related topics in master's classes. But the school has already worked with a consultant who is detailing how courses could be strengthened to give more attention to diversity, according to the letter.

CU was also found non-compliant with "assessment" -- meaning the school hasn't established a system of measuring whether newsgathering students are learning professional skills appropriate to the master's level.

"The vote for provisional accreditation of our undergraduate and graduate journalism programs affirms our confidence in the restructuring we have undertaken to deliver them," Moore said in a statement. "We felt all along that, given a careful explanation of our intentions and goals for journalism, that the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication would see that we are restructuring our program for the better for both our students and our university. We now look forward to moving ahead with a bold vision for journalism education at CU-Boulder."

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